Jason Vargas had an MRI today after he left last night’s outing in the second inning and the result was a torn ulnar collateral ligament, the injury most associated with Tommy John surgery. Typically for Tommy John surgery, a pitcher will miss 12-15 months, meaning Vargas is definitely out for all of this season and will likely miss most or all of 2016. The 32-year old left-hander had been out since June 8 with an flexor tendon strain, but returned last night ...

The San Rafael Pacifics, who play in the Pacific Association, will employ Pitch f/X July 28 and 29, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. The games will be the first in professional baseball history in which a human will not be used to call balls and strikes.

The Pitch F/X system consists of three cameras forming a triangular effect that judges a pitch’s trajectory and speed as it crosses the plate. The system is used on television ...

With two outs in the eighth, Neftali Feliz, a struggling reliever who the Tigers picked up for a pittance—the latest existential shot in the dark—was reverting to his floundering self. He had passed 30 pitches and had already allowed a run via a wild pitch. With two on-base, Seth Smith was walked intentionally, loading the bases. It should have never gotten to this point. Instead, Ausmus stuck with Feliz, who served up what can ...

But there was one thing the Diamondbacks didn’t do, something that raised eyebrows for many in the industry: They left a sizeable chunk of their $12.8 million draft allotment unspent, leaving some $1.7 million in pool money on the table. That’s the most unspent pool money by a team in the four years since the current collective bargaining agreement went into effect….

Given some other moves the team has made — blowing up its international pool for only one player (Yoan Lopez) rather than ...

Leslie Mann will probably be stationed permanently in left field owing to his superior throwing arm. He will be able to cut more runs down at the plate, Manager Tinker believes.

I guess because most batters are right-handed and they’re more likely to hit the ball to left field than to right field? This is an interesting move on Tinker’s part, the exact opposite of the modern conventional wisdom. Anybody know when “put a good arm in right field” became standard ...

For most of baseball’s existence, though, a fielder’s performance was evaluated by a group that is notoriously unreliable: human beings. Baseball defense was measured not by numbers but the eyes of scouts. To combat this inefficiency, the nerds went to work, coming up with computerized statistics that measured range and outs created, boiling the entirety of defensive performance down to a single number. Problem solved.

Some serious “Play The Game The Right Way Theatre” going on in San Diego last night, as benches cleared in the ninth inning of the Giants win over the Padres. The reason? These two teams like to throw gum at each other.

I watched this live last night. What was the third base coach thinking? Down by three runs in the ninth and he sends Marte. Down three runs. In the 9th. Watch the video. (Sorry, it wasn’t available to embed.)

Trying to make it all right with another of their patented ambushes of a premier closer, the Bucs had Marte open the ninth with a single off Greg Holland and Kang followed with a smash over center fielder Lorenzo Cain’s head.

Multiple sources said the Phillies are willing to eat money in a Hamels deal depending on the package received, while one noted the asking price in terms of prospects was high, both in quantity and quality of players.

“I didn’t sign my contract because I wanted to be somewhere else,” Tulowitzki said of the 10-year, $157.75 million deal that includes an option for 2021 that would add another $11 million to the total value. “I signed my contract because I want to be with the Rockies.”
That hasn’t changed.

odgers starter Brett Anderson is no stranger to injuries. He’s had three surgeries throughout his Major League career and can list problems to his back, fingers, ankle, forearm and knee among his ailments.

But in the Dodgers’ 4-3 loss to the Braves on Tuesday night, the 27-year-old lefty felt discomfort in an area he’s never injured before: his left Achilles.
Anderson had to leave the game in the third inning after tweaking the tendon and ...

While nothing is imminent, the Mets have gotten as far as discussing pieces with the A’s for a possible deal for Ben Zobrist, a source told The News Tuesday afternoon. The A’s have identified the prospects they would need to send the veteran utility man to New York.

The frustrating sophomore season of Yordano Ventura has reached its nadir: The Royals have optioned Ventura, their opening day starter, to Class AAA Omaha to make room on the roster for Jason Vargas.

The Royals agreed to a $23 million contract with Ventura before the season began, and expected him to build off his impressive rookie campaign. Little has gone right for Ventura, who has been hampered by injuries, emotional outbursts ...

For half of Major League Baseball’s 30 clubs, Wednesday’s Competitive Balance Lottery will provide a shot at a valuable extra selection in the 2016 Draft.

The Lottery, which was first held in 2013 after being created under the current Collective Bargaining Agreement, gives the teams with the 10 smallest markets or 10 smallest revenue pools chances at one of 12 extra Draft picks. The picks are divided into Rounds A and B, with six falling after the first round and six after second round of the ...

That’s the kind of solid contact that ought to lead to production, but confoundingly for Cano, it didn’t. But over the past 30 days, Cano has looked like the star we saw in New York. You might expect that he has been hitting the ball harder, and indeed he has. But perhaps just as important, Cano has changed his average launch angle. That is, he’s stopped pounding the ball into the ground, or pumping out low and easily-caught liners, and managed some elevation ...

I am not one to bail on a season but the Red Sox hole has gotten really big. Sorry, it’s time to start thinking about next year.

A year ago, hope flickered for the Red Sox around the All-Star break with a stretch of five straight victories. A subsequent string of four consecutive losses through July 25 told the Red Sox all they needed to know. At nine games under .500 and with a deficit of 10 ½ games in the division and 7 ½ in the wild card race, there was nothing left. After a Friday night ...

some blog tried to determine the ‘best fans in baseball’ in the form an of index

from the article:

We have taken data from various sources including ticket sales, social data, attendance, and team revenue, and used it to compile a ranking of MLB fan bases.

Here’s how we did it:

Average attendance for 2014 as a percentage of stadium capacity
Average ticket price on the secondary market (driven by demand) for the 2014 regular season
Annual team revenue for 2014 as provided by Forbes
Total ...

Honus [sic] Lobert is interested in the statement by Jimmy Clabby, the boxer, that tennis is a great game for developing speed. Clabby plays tennis a great deal, and says it improves his footwork.

Lobert likes tennis. He is not a bad player, and he would play regularly if he had not had orders from McGraw to leave it alone…McGraw believes tennis slows up a ball player. He argues that the sudden stopping and starting, the quick changes of course that a tennis ...

I spoke with Greenville manager Darren Fenster after the game and he discussed Moncada’s disappointing start.

“His first month and half he didn’t perform the way he expected to, and the way a lot of people expected him to.” said Fenster. ” There’s a lot of things you can probably attribute to that, whether he was putting undue pressure on himself, whether because of the layoff or just coming into a new culture. Here in the second half he’s really turned the corner and put a lot of things ...

The no. 2 pick, Alex Bregman, gave the Astros a discount in excess of $1.5 million, most of which went toward Houston signing the no. 37 pick, Daz Cameron, to a deal worth nearly two and a half times the draft slot value. That’s usually what happens when one player signs for less than his slot value: The money shows up later in the draft, allowing the team to grab another quality player who would’ve gone back to school unless the price was right.